The Pirate volleyball team dropped its final Intermountain League match of the season 3-2 to Monte Vista last Thursday and heads to the district tournament as the league’s No. 3 seed.

Pagosa was in a position to beat Monte last week, winning the second and third games of the match 25-20 and 25-13 respectively (after dripping the first game 21-25). The hosts came through with a win in the fourth game, 25-15, then closed out the evening with a 15-12 in the fifth and deciding game.

“Monte Vista was hitting the ball really well,” said Pirate Coach Connie O’Donnell, “and we weren’t — except for Brinda Wallis, who had one of her better games attackwise.”

Wallis, a senior outside, was credited with 18 kills for the match. She served two aces and had 13 digs in the back court.

Breezy Bryant had nine kills on the night, with two aces and 12 digs.

Magan Kraetsch logged six kills in the final league game of her career.

Junior middle Katie Armbrecht had five kills and five solo blocks during the match.

Brooklyn DuCharme was busy on defense, with 12 digs.

“Our problem is we would have several errors in a row,” said O’Donnell. “We’d get buried and then we couldn’t come back. We were making first-of-season mistakes — things that shouldn’t be happening now.

“We’ll go back to basics during practice, working on our passing and setting, remembering how to do things correctly.”

Doing things correctly will be important Saturday at Bayfield as the Pirates compete in the District 7 tournament. Bayfield, the IML champ, hosts the tournament. The Wolverines went undefeated in the IML this season and lost but three matches during the regular season schedule.

The other two teams at the tournament should also provide the Pirates with top-level competition.

Olathe comes into the fray with a 16-2 record as the second seed from the Western Slope League.

The Classical Academy travels from Colorado Springs, the No. 3 seed from the powerful Tri Peaks League with a 13-6 record.